Dance of the Dead (V), Poster and Synopsis

“Prom. It’s their Night to Come Alive!”

SYNOPSIS

On the night of the big High-School Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn’t get dates to the dance.

MOVIE REVIEW

“DANCE explodes like a shotgun blast of pure teen comedy and devastates everything in its path with a battery of torn off limbs, bashed in brains, severed spinal cords and a night at the prom that makes CARRIE look like PRETTY IN PINK… DANCE OF THE DEAD is the best horror comedy of this or any other year. Now bring it on!”

Dance of the Dead (V)
UK, May 21, 2008 - Dance of the Dead is a low-budget comedy horror gem playing at this year’s Cannes Festival. Already a hit at America’s SXSW festival, the film takes the simple equation that ‘zombies plus prom equals laughs’, and runs with it for 90 minutes of pure, unadulterated fun.

The plot is as ridiculous as horror plots get, revolving around discharge from a power plant bringing the residents of a local cemetery back to life. It also happens to be prom time, with the pupils of Cosa High School holding their Hawaiian Hula Dance, and when the zombies munch their way through much of the town and eventually reach the school, all hell, quite literally, breaks loose.

Every zombie film owes a debt to the godfather of gore, George Romero, and Dance is no different, referencing Night of the Living Dead in the opening passages, and slipping in a knowing Dawn of the Dead gag when the zombies hit the supermarket.
“Zombies plus prom equals laughs.”

And yet it’s very much its own beast, featuring wildly original ideas that take the genre in new and refreshing directions, from zombie frogs causing classroom carnage, to zombie kids moshing at a zombie gig. Indeed, some of the scenes are truly inspired; a zombie love scenes a particular standout, and the vision of the undead leaping out of their graves one of the best of the fest thus far.

The young cast attack their roles with great enthusiasm, initially appearing to be typical high school archetypes before actually turning into kids you care about. And director Greg Bishop shoots with such vim and vigour that you can’t help but be carried away by the marvellous momentum of it all. The result is perfect Friday night fodder; a zombie film that’s a blast from start to finish, and one that should inject new life into a genre that looked to be dead on its feet.